Charting The Past
by AmiraStarr
Summary: AU. All Yamato wanted to do was pass history class and graduate high school. He never meant to dig into something this deep and dark. But with each passing day he is discovering the hardships of researching life. Once you know who you are, you can never go back.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.**

**Welcome to 'Charting the Past'! I appreciate you giving my story some attention. This is my first attempt at a Digimon fic in first person style, and I am hoping it won't be too bad. **** Any suggestions on how to write first person stories are more then welcome. Thanks for reading the first chapter and have a great day!**

**Oh, and in this universe the Digidestined are friends from school, but did not have any adventures in the digital world. Digimon is merely a popular cartoon in their universe.**

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_There were colors. Everywhere I looked bright neon colors reflected back at my face from their location a few miles ahead. I walked towards the lights and found a cheerful tune joining me as I grew closer and closer to the lights. For some reason my heart began to pound with a newly excited rhythm and a smile broke out onto my face. The combination of the colors and sounds filled me with a strange sense of wonder and joy. It was like I was coming back to a place I knew well, instead of running into the unknown. As the feeling grew, my desire to reach the lights grew as well. Suddenly I was running towards the promise land at a speed I didn't know I could produce. The lights grew closer with each step I took, and as I reached my hand out to touch their neon warmth the lights and music disappeared. _

_The area became encased in a dark shadow that rapidly began to kill any joy I had once felt. The floor below joined the dark theme and began to morph into some kind of goo ready to drag anything it could to the depths below. As a last resort I tried screaming into the blackness. There was no telling who could have been nearby or if they would stop to help me, but I had to try. Something in my core told me that if I didn't fight back now, I would regret it for the rest of my life. The black goo began to creep up my body and I started to struggle with all the might my swarmed arms could muster._

A painful thud brought me out of the goo and back into the world of the living. Glancing around the room with blurred vision, I spotted my uniform blazer hanging on the back of my door and one of my guitars leaning against the bed. Below my body was the ugly shag carpet that hadn't been changed since the apartment building was first erected in Odaiba. For the first time I could remember, I was thankful the old carpet greeted me. Anything was better then that horrible slime. But how had I ended up on the floor? Then again, that dream usually left me in some kind of awkward position. At least it no longer made me scream and cry like it had during my childhood. The last thing I needed was for dad to come home and find me in the middle of some night terror.

The alarm clock on the desk alerted me to the fact it was far too early to be contemplating the meaning of nightmares. I climbed back into the bed and tried to force myself to relax back into a deep sleep. After a half hour of lying still and staring up at the bland celling, the stagnant feeling began to annoy me. With a longer then usual sigh, I gave up recapturing my last my few hours of sleep and pulled out a familiar book from under my bed.

I leafed through the ancient text until my eyes found the page I had highlighted when the book was new, "Colors in dreams represent energy, emotions, and vibrations. Bright colors mean awareness… You'd think if I was so aware, I would have figured out this dream by now."

**XXX**

I must have dozed off at some point during my reading, because I managed to oversleep just long enough to be late for first period and miss the entire morning assembly. After a few minutes of waiting out in the hall, Sensei Ito allowed me to come back inside and take my seat. Every set of eyes in the room watched as I slinked into my chair. I hated being late. I hated having the teacher use my lateness, as part of her tardiness is a sin lecture. And above all, I hated the goofy grin Taichi offered me each time I stumbled into class after the bell.

"Maybe you should just sleep at the school?" He whispered in that usual happy-go-lucky tone.

I eyed the teacher and waited till she was busy trying to find her place in the textbook, before leaning to the side and whispering, "Some of us have other commitments to uphold and late nights."

"Late nights? Commitments?" Taichi paused as the teacher began to read aloud from her own text. He propped his book up on the desk to stop her from seeing his mouth move. "Sounds like a girl issue Ishida."

"There is no girl." I rolled my eyes and turned my attention back to the insipid textbook.

"As you can see from our past readings," The teacher's voice increased in volume as she walked between the rows of desks. Her steely gaze watched each of the teenagers in the room with well-rehearsed disapproval in her eyes. Most of the students who took Sensei Ito for history fully believed that she lacked the capability to smile. That maybe the facial muscles needed to form any expression besides a frown were dysfunctional. "Family lineage was terribly important to high ranking medieval families. They relied on specific documents citing the connections between various members of their groups. To this day we focus on researching family lines, and proving our connection to other members of our family by using various forms of documents."

Sensei Ito walked back to the front of the room and placed her text on the desk. She crossed her arms over her chest and stared out into the sea of students. "How many of you have seen your birth certificates?"

A handful of students raised their hands, but I kept mine on the desk. I had never been interested in looking at such documents, and it seemed like I was in the minority. Taichi and Sora both offered me a curious glance, but didn't dare ask anything with Ito staring straight at us. A quick look around the room assured me that not only did most of the kids have their hands up, but that I was the only one who hadn't raised their hand.

"For our new project," Ito ignored my lack of participation and the groans filling the room. "I want you to research your family tree. We are going to find out where each of our classmates came from. And present our results in front of the class."

"Exactly how far back do we have to go?" Tai, ever the dedicated student, piped up from the desk beside me.

"This is your final project for the semester, Yagami-kun. How far back do _you_ think you need to go?"

"Grandparents?" The boy mumbled, while Sora and I shook our heads in silent disapproval. The boy had no idea when to give up.

"This assignment is to examine the far reaches of your family lineage. To discover the relatives and ancestors that you were not aware of. This assignment will open your eyes to the history of your family." She spotted Tai's hand about to raise and cut the boy off. "The basic requirements will be to research to your great grandparents. But the further you delve into your family tree, the better your final grade."

The bell for lunch broke the silence of the classroom and forced Ito to clap her hands swiftly to regain order. "You will need to present your findings at the end of the semester. Now, you are dismissed. Except for you Ishida-kun. I want you to stay for a moment."

Once the rest of the class had exited the room and headed towards their next destination, Ito walked over to the door and closed it gently. She stationed herself behind the large wooden desk at the front of the room and motioned for me to come closer. I took my time grabbing my shoulder bag and walking up to the desk. Ito never had good news when she spoke to me in class, who knows what she wanted to say now that we were alone.

"Ishida-kun, do you realize how many tardies you have acquired this past month?"

"Three, Sensei?"

"Try six." She opened a drawer and pulled out a hefty manila folder. I let out a small sigh of relief when she selected only one sheet of paper from the folder instead of telling me each one was about my tardies. "There is a strict attendance policy in this school. The rulebook states that after three unexcused absences the student's grades will be demoted with each following absence. As it stands right now, you are looking at a very possible failing grade for this course."

"Fail…" I had to physically shake my head to clear the shock from my mind. "I thought I didn't have any absences, just tardies Sensei."

"Your tardies add up to as many missed hours of class time as four full absences." The woman placed the document back into her folder and looked up at me with what seemed like genuine concern. "Ishida-kun, I have seen the work you have done in other classes. I think you are very intelligent and will do well on the entrance exams if you could just learn some organizational skills. So, I am offering you a chance to fix your grade in my class. If you present a final project that is very thorough and extremely well researched I will give you a passing grade. If you cannot present a project of the caliber I know you are able to handle, I will have no choice but to leave your grade as it is."

**XXX**

By the time the school day had ended I was still unable to get Ito's words out of my mind. I had never failed a course before and I couldn't start now. There were no plans in my future to go to some expensive, fancy college, but even the music school I wanted to attend would require my transcript and exam scores. How could I beat the millions of other graduating seniors applying to the school when I had failing grades on my record?

"Hey Yamato!"

I looked up from the guitar I had been idly strumming and spotted a few of my friends heading to my current spot beneath the school's cherry blossom trees. Tai led the charge and kicked a soccer ball along the ground as he jogged up to me. Sora and Koushiro brought up the rear and tried to keep up with the quick moving brunette.

"I have been looking all over for you." Tai dropped to the ground beside me and rested his back against the trunk of a large tree.

"Tai figured Sensei Ito had eaten you alive." Sora laughed softly and sat across from me. She stole Taichi's ball and began lazily spinning it on her finger. "Was she upset with you?"

"Ito is upset with everything. She probably gives the clouds a lecture when they cover the sun." Tai rolled his eyes and waited for one of the other group members to laugh at his joke.

"What did she say?" Koushiro broke into Tai's mini comedy routine and tried to gain some factual information.

"I have to do good on the final project to pass the class."

"That isn't to bad," Sora offered a smile and patted the my hand. "Just talk to your dad. I bet he has all sorts of information."

If dad was ever home for longer then twelve minutes that could have been a good idea. "Yeah. Hey, have you guys all actually seen your birth certificates? Or were you just trying to go along with Ito?"

"My mom has that thing in my baby book. She always tries to drag them out to show Kari and I every year. Each birthday morning she cooks up some kind of inedible pancake and looks through the baby book."

"My mother showed it to me when I graduated from elementary school and again when I graduated from middle school. She just stared at the footprints on it, teared up, and talked about how her daughter was growing up."

I actually was the only one who hadn't seen their birth certificate. To be honest, it had never occurred to me to look for such a document. Over the years I had asked my mom and dad a few questions about when I was a baby, but the subject never really interested me. By the time I actually started to wonder about my history my parents had decided to split up and effectively put a halt to any of our family discussions. The rest of the years, I kept busy taking care of dad and tried not to think about my past. Looking back was just to stressful and awkward. Why waste my time on that?

"I wouldn't worry about it Yamato." Tai picked up on the shifting mood and offered me a goofy grin. "Let's just play soccer and think about it later."

"No thanks." I gave them my best attempt at a smile and stood up. "I need to get working on this project. Maybe I can get my dad to come home early tonight and we can talk about his side of the family."

"Good luck, Yama." Sora and the others watched me walk away from the school grounds and seemed to be discussing something I couldn't hear when I looked back in their direction.

**XXX**

After a quick stop by the grocery store, I booked it to the apartment. I had a pretty good feeling that dad would want to know why I was suddenly so interested in our family tree. So, it couldn't hurt to butter the guy up with a good meal. Dad had never been a strict parent by any measure, but he was a good enough father to be severely disappointed with a son who managed to drag his grade so low.

I stirred the pots of various vegetables simmering on the stove, and tried to think of every tidbit I knew about our family. A pad of scratch paper was placed next to the wall-mounted phone. I tore off a sheet and started to draw the basic level of my family tree. There was Takeru and I at the very bottom, mom and dad above us, mom's mother above her… and… that was all I knew.

"How the hell is that it?" I taped the pencil on the table and tried my hardest to concentrate on the subject at hand.

Mom and dad couldn't have just fallen out of the sky and produced two sons. They had to have parents and their parents had parents and so on. I think my father had once told me he had a brother. Or was that a sister? An image of my father with long hair and curves entered my mind and caused my entire body to shiver in disgust. If it was a girl, I hope she was lucky enough to look like her mother. Whose name I… also didn't know.

"Yama?" I heard my dad's voice call out into the apartment and shoved my failed attempt at a family tree in the junk drawer.

"In the kitchen dad!"

"Smells good in here." He dropped his briefcase on the kitchen table and walked directly to the pans on the stove. "What are you making?"

"Your favorite."

"Sounds good to me." He tried to fan some of the aromas from the top of pots to his nose. "What is the special occasion? You only fix this complicated of a meal when something is up."

"Well, I actually wanted to ask you some questions about our fa-"

"One moment, son." Dad held up a finger and pulled the vibrating phone from his pocket. "This is Ishida. What's going on?"

The work call lasted much longer then I expected. By the time dad had turned off the phone and made it to the table, the food was slightly cold and I had to reheat his plate. My own were already soaking in the sink awaiting a good scrub after we had our conversation. He thanked me heartily for cooking, as usual, and began to stuff his face. The man always seemed to eat like someone who had been starving for days, instead of someone who had merely skipped lunch to work on reports.

"So, dad…" I rested my chin on my left hand and tried my hardest to keep the conversation casual. "About what I was saying in the kitchen. I had some questions to ask you."

"Sure, son. What is it?" He swallowed a large bite of food and took a sip of his water.

"Well, do you know where my birth certificate is?"

The man paused in mid-chew and stared at the wall behind my head. For a moment I wondered if he was having some kind of episode, but he roughly swallowed the food and set his fork on the plate. His normally tired eyes began to search the area as if he was waiting for someone to enter the dining room and answer the question for him.

"Dad?" I watched him nervously and waited for some sound to come from his lips.

"Sorry, son." He coughed a little and downed the rest of his drink. "I just swallowed wrong."

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. I'm just going to go lay down for a bit. I had a migraine from work and have to go back tonight to do a little more work, so I'm just gonna rest for a little bit. You're okay to do the dishes right?"

"Sure… and you don't mind getting my birth certificate?"

He paused once again and strummed his fingers on the dinning room table. The only times I had seen my dad tap the table or fidget nervously was when he was under a great amount of stress. The first time was when he and my mom told Takeru and I that they were breaking up. I could understand him being stressed out then, but why was he so worked up now? How hard could it be to dig out an old piece of paper?

"I think it is at your mother's apartment. I'll call her and check later."

"Oh," I watched him leave the room with wide eyes. Just before he slid behind his bedroom door, I noticed he pulled his phone out and quickly dialed some numbers. "Maybe passing history class is going to be harder then I thought."

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**Why is Yamato's father so nervous about the birth certificate? Will Yama pass history class? Why does he always have the colorful nightmare? Stay tuned for more answers in this mysterious case. : ) And if anyone knows a good beta, please send them my way. My grammar could use their guidance lol. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon.**

**Hello all of my readers out there. **** I know it took me a while to get another chapter up, but I am busily working away on the story. I have about half of it written out on paper and just need to type it up. Anywho, thank you to TogetherAgain for giving me my first review. You are such a sweet reader and reviewer who has been tremendously kind to all of my Digimon works on .**

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By the time I woke up the apartment was empty once more. Dad had left some dishes in the sink, but there was still no sign of my birth certificate. I had hoped he was dead wrong about my mother having the document. The few times I had seen my mom since the divorce was when I stopped by her apartment to pick up Takeru. Our relationship had never been perfect, even before the divorce, but after the ink on the paperwork dried it seemed like our relationship was practically demolished.

We never clicked I guess you could say. Granted my first solid memories of family life were around the time Takeru had been born. Mom had been so happy when he was born, but every time she had looked at me I had somehow gotten in trouble. I don't blame TK for taking mom's time and attention, I just felt a little left out some times. As if I wasn't a good enough son in her eyes. The last thing I could do now was barge into mom's apartment and demand documents. I'm sure that would do _wonders_ for our relationship.

There still was a chance dad had a copy of my birth certificate somewhere in the apartment. Of course, his display last night made me reluctant to believe I could convince the old man to search for anything related to my birth. Dad had never been the calmest person on the planet, but the situation last night was ridiculous. All I wanted was a simple piece of paper. Could he have been upset because my teacher called and told him about my bad grades? Either way, it still didn't seem like appropriate behavior for the situation. You don't become that nervous if someone else is failing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something vibrating on the kitchen counter. I picked up the pager and glanced at the number flashing across its green screen. Dad never left his beeper, cell, or laptop at home. Those things were attached to his hip twenty four seven. The number on the screen was a pretty familiar one but it was out of place on dad's pager. Why would mom be trying to reach him? That could explain his nervous attitude last night.

I pocketed the beeper and grabbed a jacket before rushing out of the apartment and down the stairs. The sidewalks were crowded with Saturday shoppers trying to rush from store to store. Large groups of teens blocked the street corners forcing my simple trip across town to take substantially longer than normal. By the time I reached the lobby of dad's building the enormous clock on the wall read twenty after twelve. Knowing my father, he was probably locked in a meeting with some shareholder.

"Can I help you?" A deep voice broke my concentration.

"Huh?" Above me rose a tall ape like man who resembled a young King Kong. His gut protruded over his utility belt, forcing the buttons on his shirt to work harder then any button should to contain the mass of flesh.

"This is a private building. We do not allow children to run amok in this place."

Children? Run amok? I looked around the empty lobby as if an army of these so called children would come running out of their hiding places. Certainly he didn't mean me. No one had called me a child in years, and I highly doubted that walking into a building and quietly looking at a clock was running amok.

"I'm here to see my father."

"Really?" His brow dipped downward as he continued the ridiculous attempt at guarding the building.

"Yes. My father is Ishida Hiroaki. He left his pager at home and I came here to give it back to him."

"No one uses a pager these days."

I had to give that one to Santa guard. Dad had never been a technologically advanced man. I pulled the device out of my pocket and showed him the inscription on the bottom. "My dad does."

"Haven't seen one of these in ages…"

"Yeah, well I have to get upstairs."

"Wait," He put a hand on my shoulder before I could escape arms' length. "Son or no son, this is a busy building and it will not tolerate any monkey shines."

Although I was not sure what the heck a monkeyshine was, I nodded my head to get away from the man. My feet stumbled up the first few steps slowly, but soon I was out of his sight and racing at a much faster pace. Dad had mentioned that his station was trying to cut back on some finances, but I had no idea they would be willing to cut back this far. The place deserved at least a decent guard.

My feet squeaked to a stop as I reached dad's floor. Multiple rows of cubicles faced me as I tried to work my way to his office on the back wall. When I was a child, I had believed that everyone's parents worked on weekends. The idea that each child in the world was left alone on Saturday mornings to fix their own breakfast and do what they wanted for the rest of the weekend seemed like common sense. It wasn't until I became brave enough to adventure outside the apartment that I realized I was in the minority. Every corner of that park had been covered in parents and children playing games. Sora and Tai had asked me before if I missed having those special moments with my father as a kid. In all honesty, I wasn't sure if I would change it if given the chance. Being left alone for such long periods of time had forced me to grow up quicker then most kids. I knew that I would be able to take care of myself no matter what happened, an important skill when you knew you would soon be out on your own.

Closer to my dad's door, I picked up on his voice talking to what I assumed was someone on the phone since I couldn't hear the other person's responses. "He needs to know… No I didn't say anything."

Well, that was odd.

"I told you I didn't say anything." His voice deepened as the conversation pushed onward.

I crept forward, breaking multiple moral codes, and pressed my ear against the slightly ajar door. Between dad's moment of panic last night and the strangest work call I had heard in my life, my brain made the decision that sneaking just once would be okay.

"We can't k-"

"What's this?!"

A large hand gripped my shoulder and sent my body into an awkward jerk. The door flew open when my knee slammed into the wood. Inside the room my dad quickly hung up the phone and rounded the side of his desk. Surprisingly, he didn't look to upset. Instead the man looked somewhat tired and haggard. I followed his glance to the guard who was smiling ear to ear for catching a _perp_. Santa guard jerked me into a standing position by the scruff of my shirt and waited for some kind of congratulations.

"I caught this boy eavesdropping on your private affairs."

"I just wanted to give you the pager." I dug the black box out of my pocket and handed it to dad.

"This is my son," As the words escaped dad's mouth, the grip on my shirt disappeared and I stepped away from the guard. "Thank you for the pager Yamato. Would you like some money for a ride back to the apartment?"

Why was dad suddenly giving me the brush off? Out of the corner of my eye, I could see the lights on dad's phone blinking to signal multiple calls incoming. Maybe the strange tone of his voice actually was due to a heavy workload. Still, dad had been swamped at work before and never acted as crazy as he did last night.

"No, that's all right. You should be finished soon right? Aren't weekends just half days after the budget cuts? We could get a late lunch."

The brow on his face slid down into a look that almost resembled disappointment. "I still have a lot of work to do Yamato. It is going to be a late night today and tomorrow. You go ahead and enjoy your weekend."

Before I knew what was happening, dad stuffed some money into my hands and ushered me out of the office. Once he was out of sight, the guard gave me a small push towards the stairwell. To deter any looking back he kept on nudging me all the way to the first floor. By the time we made it to the lobby I was thoroughly pissed off. Apparently I wasn't wanted in the building or in my dad's sight.

**XXX**

When Monday lunchtime rolled around I had little to show for a full weekend of research. There hadn't been any photo albums in the entire apartment. After searching every nook, cranny, and odd book with paper stuffed between the pages I was ready to declare that no photos of me before the age of ten existed. Honestly it wasn't to surprising that evidence of my younger life was hard to find. Each time I had mentioned our past life dad would get this mopey look on his face. When I was older, I began to realize that talking about his ex-wife was pretty depressing for him. The only full family photo I knew of was hidden in dad's wallet. Once he and I had struck out on our own there had been little time for pictures. I think there were about one or two images of dad and me after the divorce.

On Sunday I had become so desperate for results that I spent money on one of those genealogy websites. Of course with only a few names to work with I wasn't that successful. Who knew that so many people shared my parents' names? Any hit the website had generated was printed out and stacked with a million other sheets of paper for further examination.

Taichi found me knee deep in results in the library around the halfway point of lunch period. At first I could see a sarcastic smirk break out on his tanned face, but when he stared into my tired eyes the boy pulled it back and offered me a simple smile. "Whoa, have you slept at all this week?"

"Huh?" I barely registered his question as my hands shifted through random pieces of paper. "What was that Tai?"

He sat down beside me and stared at the mound of papers, "Is this all for that project?"

"My parents have a surprisingly small online persona. I pulled every Natsuko Takaishi, Natsuko Ishida, and Hiroaki Ishida on the website."

Taichi grabbed a handful of papers and shifted through them, "Some of these people are in America."

"You're digging from the discard pile."

"Oh," He dropped all but one paper and leaned the chair back so that only the rear legs were touching the ground. "You must really want to impress Ito. I just asked my mom and dad one question and they gave me an entire lecture over our family tree."

"I have to do good on this project."

The paper in his hand was being folded and shaped to resemble a plane. "They made me sit there for over an hour and a half listening to stories about great-great-great-whoever. It was horrendous, but I survived. Why don't you try asking your parents? They will probably give you a lot shorter of a speech."

"All my dad said was that my mom had my birth certificate."

"And she said…"

"I didn't ask her."

There was no secrecy around the fact my relationship with my mother was strained at best. After my first year of friendship with Tai, the brunette had wormed the story of my life out of my normally tightly closed lips. To be honest, part of my brain still hated the fact I had cracked that night so long ago.

The whole incident was still crystal clear in my memory (an impressive feat when you consider the amount of alcohol involved). On that night Taichi had stopped by the apartment to drop off a book I had leant him. Unfortunately, he had discovered my door was unlocked and found me in a drunken stupor at the kitchen table.

I had found a bottle of my dad's liquor in the back of one of the cabinets, and decided in my self-appointed maturity that I could handle the muddy-brown liquid. After a few shots the strange warmth it offered my chest trickled down to my feet. Giving my entire body a strangely unguarded and somewhat vulnerable feeling. Which fueled, a move I will forever regret, convincing Tai to try a sip. He barely got it down and pushed the bottle out of my reach before I could take another. And like most cases involving these kinds of vices, the liquor unlocked a part of my mind that wasn't ready to be shared with anyone.

Taichi had sat quietly beside me as my entire life story tumbled out of my mouth in semi-comprehensible slurs. My parents' divorce, fears over Takeru, my strained relationship with my mother all came tumbling out with a light rum smell attached. And lastly the reason for my choice to venture into the adult world of drinking; everyone had forgotten that it was my 14th birthday.

The rest of the night had been somewhat clouded by the alcohol. I had reached for the bottle and knocked it to the ground due to a lapse in judgment, motor skills, and other things. Glass shards littered the ground below our feet and a few tears escaped my closed eyes as the world became just a little to painful to handle at that moment. Although he never said a word, Tai had jumped into action by wrapping his arms around my slumped form. If someone were to ask me how long we stayed in the embrace, I wouldn't be able to remember. All I knew was that Tai held me and broke our moment sometime later to clean the glass off the floor. After which, he took me to his house for dinner and a sleep over. I don't think he ever told his parents that it was my birthday, but it didn't matter. Just being at Tai's house and spending time with a family that actually loved one another was one of my best birthdays of all time.

"What if we went together?" Tai edged the wings of his plane then threw it into the sky. "We can take Kari and Takeru with us."

"I don't know…" On the left side of the room, I could see the librarian giving us a few dirty looks for being disruptive in her building.

"This is for a school project Yamato. How can she refuse?"

**XXX**

Deep in the back, and forefront of my mind, I knew this was a bad idea. We could have at least called ahead to warn my mother that a group of kids were going to descend on her apartment. Takeru was thrilled to have our small group together for a movie night. The fates seemed to be in my favor though, because mom was running late that particular day. According to her text to TK I had an hour or so left of sanity before the crap hit the fan.

"What should we watch?" TK and Kari tossed their shoes off quickly then darted to the stand of DVDs next to the living room television.

"Romance."

"No way." Tai busted Kari's bubble and bounded over to junior high kids. I doubted he would beat his sister's movie pick, but that didn't mean he wouldn't try. "I'm not going to spend an afternoon watching some gooey movie."

Instead of joining the battle for our future movie, I took my time in the entry way. With great care, probably far to much, I untied each of my shoes in turn then pulled on a pair of guest slippers. Even with mom out of the apartment a strange tension hung in the air. There was a high chance I was overacting, but it wasn't like my fears were totally unfounded.

Mom had never been abusive during our years together. I always had clean clothes, healthy food, and a nice amount of toys. But she had always made the room feel so awkward and stressful with one stare. Eventually the feeling of uneasiness just became associated with the thought of my mom. That was one of the many reasons I had pushed for her to take Takeru instead of me.

"Stop being a slowpoke." Tai grabbed my hand and pulled me into the midst of the movie war.

Somehow the various nations had come together to settle on an old romantic comedy. According to TK it had enough action sequences and kisses to please both sides. Hikari sat next to TK on the left side of the couch, their eyes already glued to the screen. Tai plopped down beside Takeru and propped his feet on the coffee table. He patted the last remaining spot in a silent effort to cajole me into relaxing on the couch. Little did he realize what an impossible mission he was undertaking.

"I'm going to get some water."

"Can you grab a soda for Kari and I?" TK piped up as I edged out of the living room.

"Sure." This was not the time to look a busy-hand task in the face.

As I reached the solitude of the kitchen I let out the long breath I hadn't realized was waiting in my lungs. The water from the sink was ice cold and helped to calm my flushed face. After wiping the water off with a paper towel I stared at my reflection in the microwave door. What was I doing? Letting myself get so worked up about a talk with my middle-aged mother was idiotic. But there was the strange display from my father, the one parent who was normally level headed. If he acted like that mom was bound to freak out.

"You okay in there?" Takeru called from the other room.

"Fine." I grabbed two soda cans from the fridge and rushed out of the room.

"Yamato?"

The sound of my mother's voice sent a shock down my spine. Every ounce of grace I ever possessed, or hoped to posses in the future, exited my body sending the soda cans to the floor. She eyed me as I scrambled to find something to mop up one of the busted cans. The paper towels did little to sop up the large spill, but they gave me an excuse not to stare at the woman in front of me.

"Hello Takaishi-san." Hikari, TK, and a drug by his sister Taichi joined our little pow-wow in front of the kitchen. TK bent down and grabbed the soda cans and soggy paper towels from the floor. Before rising, he gave me a smile in what I figured was a non-verbal attempt to convince me to speak to mom.

"I didn't know you were all coming over. I would have cleaned the house up."

"Oh, it's no prob-"

Kari elbowed Tai in the side and stepped in front of him, "What Tai means, is your home is beautiful."

Mom blinked in surprise then regained her composure, "Thank you, dear."

"You know mom," TK came back from the kitchen after throwing away the trash. He placed a hand on my shoulder and offered mom a look that only came out when he wanted something badly. "I was going to show Kari and Tai something in my room. Why don't you talk with Yama? I think he had something to tell you."

Before I could fully understand what was going on, my friends were gone and I was left to face my mother. I could see from the deep bags under her eyes that mom was exhausted. The woman before me had aged since our last run in a few months ago. Her normally youthful skin housed deep wrinkles around her thin lips and blue eyes. In her blonde hair were sporadic streaks of white, probably created by Takeru's adventurous side. I must have stared at her to long because she cleared her throat awkwardly and walked past me to the living room.

"What did you need to talk to me about Yamato?"

"Well," As I followed her into the room I could feel my drive waning. Where had my bout of confidence gone? "I have a school assignment."

"You came across town to tell me you had homework?" She raised a quizzical eyebrow and sat down on the couch.

Damn it. Why did this woman turn me into a guilty five-year-old? I was almost seventeen! I shouldn't be terrified of my own mother. Taking a deep breath, I forced myself to act my age instead of my shoe size.

"I need to research my family for history class and wanted to see my birth certificate. Dad said you had it and my baby stuff."

An unfortunately familiar look of surprise filtered across her face. Like my father before her, the woman looked around the room as if she expected someone else to come in and answer the question for her. What kind of freaky family gets this upset about birth certificates? Everyone had one didn't they?

"Mom?" She snapped back to the real world and darted past me. I followed her to the kitchen and waited till she took a sip from her water bottle before continuing. "I don't get it. Why are you and dad so nervous about my birth certificate? I have one right?"

"Of course you do!" She snapped so quickly I had to take a step back. She must have sensed my apprehension because she attempted to turn her tone into a less agitated sound. "Yamato, this week has been very stressful. I would have appreciated a heads up before you came over demanding I halt everything and search my dresser for your papers. You are going to be a senior soon, isn't it about time you learned how to do your own research?"

Demand? The word didn't come close to computing in my brain. Apparently my meek question had not made it through my mother's brain correctly. No court in the world would have called me pushy or demanding. Why couldn't she just help me out for once?

"I tried searching online, but I had little to go on."

"I'll try and find it when I can, but there are some other things I have to do first." Her fingers gripped the water bottle so tightly her knuckles began to turn white.

"Mom," She kept her eyes on the water bottle, but I had a feeling she was listening closely to what I was saying. "If you are busy… I could look through your drawer and try to find the papers. I need the information as soon as possible and since you have so much on your plate it would be one less thing for you to do."

"No."

"What?"

She walked past me a few feet then turned on her heel and stared into my eyes. Although I couldn't place the emotions floating around in her eyes, I was pretty certain that they weren't good. "You will not go through my personal belongings. My room is private and I expect you to respect the rules of my house."

"Because I am just a visitor?" I don't know how my thoughts slipped from my brain and forced their way out of my lips, but I wasn't about to take anything back.

"Yamato." She said sternly as I marched to the front door. "Come back here…"

Her second attempt at calling me back into the apartment was in a softer tone. Not that it mattered much. By that point, any words she said would have fallen on deaf ears. The main focus was storming out of the building before my frustration got the best of me and the walls gained some new decorations.

**XXX**

"I'm her son! But she treats me like some kind of… of stranger!"

As the feelings of anger and betrayal grew in my gut I kicked a tree lining my shore side hiding spot. Pieces of bark flew from the trunk but that did nothing to squelch the anger rushing through my veins. Higher up on the trunk my fists began to pound the old wood as hard as they could. Drops of blood began to appear on the tops of my knuckles, but I continued to beat the tree until exhaustion overtook my body.

"It would probably be stupid to ask if you're okay…"

My body collapsed on the grass without sparing a glance to source of the voice.

"You know mom does love you." Takeru walked down the slight incline and perched beside me on the grass. He ignored the scoff sound I offered him and pulled his knees up to his chest. I turned my head to the side and watched Takeru stare out at the water silently. "She talks about you in her sleep. I heard her call your name out when I walked past her room the other night."

"Could have been a scream of fear. Strangers aren't known for being trustworthy after all."

His brow furrowed in displeasure and his blue eyes left the calm waters to stare into my soul, "You are my brother and her son. You are no stranger, Yamato. You are family."

"How did you find me?" No point in arguing with TK when that righteous-save-the-world look came over his face.

"We used to come here all the time. Remember? Ice cream cones, that ugly kite, and an afternoon nap on the grass." The stress on his face dissipated a little and he reclined back onto the grass. "I thought memory loss didn't start until middle age. You're getting old bro."

I gave him a soft elbow jab in the ribs, "Aren't you clever. What happened to Tai and Kari?"

"After you ran out, we all went after you. Tai wanted to lead the search party but I convinced him to let me handle this. I bet they made it home by now."

"You should head back too," I sat up and brushed some dirt off of my pants.

"Come with me. You need someone to bandage your knuckles."

Out of experience of spending time with TK, I knew he was probably giving me a hard to resist look by this point. If there was one flaw in our relationship it was the fact Takeru had an unfair advantage in quilting me into things. Ever since he was an infant I had felt that strange older sibling desire to protect and care for my baby brother.

"I'll walk you home, but then I'm heading to dad's place." For some reason, the forces aligned in my favor and TK offered no rebuttal to my deal.

* * *

**So this will probably sound idiotic since I am already behind on so many stories, but I am contemplating another one. The story idea just seems like so much fun. I must hold myself back from pushing out so many at a time lol. Anyway, hope this chapter was okay. **** Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


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